# APHIS The **Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)** is the [[Department of Agriculture]] sub-agency responsible for protecting U.S. agriculture and natural resources from animal diseases, plant pests, and invasive species. Its work — from livestock-disease containment to pest eradication and border agricultural inspection — is the federal government's front line against biological threats to the food supply. ## The 2025–2026 gutting APHIS became a case study in the second Trump administration's hollowing of biosecurity capacity. In 2025, staffing cuts dropped the agency's headcount by **25%**, and **more than half of its area veterinarians retired or resigned**. The consequences surfaced quickly with the northward spread of the **New World screwworm** — a flesh-eating parasitic maggot long eradicated from the U.S. — into deer, jaguars, peccaries, porcupines, and livestock across Central America and into the U.S. Secretary [[Brooke Rollins]] blamed former president [[Joe Biden]] for the pest's arrival, but three former USDA officials told *Politico* (June 2026) that the Trump administration had held up funding for a facility crucial to slowing the screwworm and delayed a **$100 million** research initiative to combat it. The pattern parallels the [[CDC]] FoodNet surveillance rollback: cut the capacity to detect and contain a biological threat, then contend with the threat once it materializes. > Stub — fill out. Expand with: APHIS structure and Veterinary Services, the sterile-insect screwworm eradication program (COPEG/Panama), border inspection role, and the full staffing-cut timeline. ## See Also - [[Department of Agriculture]] - [[Brooke Rollins]] - [[CDC]] - [[Project 2025]]